‘Fast wood’ plantations have been praised by their promoters for creating employment, boosting economies with foreign exchange and taking pressure off natural forests.

They’ve also been criticized by environmental groups as poor economic and environmental solutions to meeting the world’s spiraling demand for paper.

But fast wood plantations are neither inherently good nor bad, according to a report “Fast-Wood Forestry - Myths and Realities” published during a meeting of the UN Forum on Forests in Geneva in May 2003 jointly by CIFOR and three environmental groups, WWF, IUCN- The World Conservation Union and Forest Trends.

Specifically, the report says the pro and cons of fast wood plantations depend on what the plantation is replacing, and whether government subsidies to private companies are encouraging such plantations where more suitable land uses would otherwise prevail.

In short, the problems with plantations are often site-specific issues of planning and management.

‘Fast’ forests were first planted on a large scale in Brazil 30 years ago and now cover huge areas in Chile, Indonesia, Thailand and Portugal. They are intensively managed, set in blocks of a single species - usually eucalypts, poplars, pines and acacias. They produce industrial round wood at high growth rates and competitive prices, harvested in less than 20 years instead of 50 years for normal forests.

Some of these small logs are used for hardboard for the building industry or charcoal for the steel industry. But mostly they’re used for pulpwood, the raw material for the paper industry.

The report estimates there are 10 million hectares of fast wood plantations worldwide at present, with an additional million hectares of land likely to be converted each year.

That’s mainly in response to the growth of world consumption of paper: it’s expected to be 80 percent higher in 2010 than in 1990.

“Over the next few decades, fast growing plantations are set to become the main source of the world’s paper,” according to Christian Cossalter, CIFOR scientist and joint-author of the report.

“Governments need to take steps now to make sure that these plantations provide social benefits and do not harm the environment,” he said.

Fast wood plantations can be a very efficient and profitable way of producing timber and pulpwood, for both companies and society as a whole. They can aid development and boost local economies by providing jobs.

And even though they are usually monocultures, attracting fewer native species of fauna, they can be stimuli to the natural environment if planted on land that’s degraded or cleared. Such plantations, including some in New Zealand, do reduce pressure on primary forests and in this way contribute to biodiversity.

But equally, industry and governments often underestimate the damage done by ill-considered development of fast wood forestry.

For instance, when fast wood plantations are established at the expense of natural primary forests, native grasslands or even pastures, there is a significant loss of habitats rich in biodiversity. This can also be harmful to water resources and soil quality.

As well, fast wood plantations often bring far fewer jobs than claimed by companies, as they are labour- intensive only during planting and harvesting.

Also, in much of Southeast Asia and other tropical regions, land that companies want for fast-growing plantations is often the same land villagers rely on to feed themselves or earn a living. There have been volatile environmental protests and violent clashes between governments, plantation owners and pulp companies on the one hand and peasant farmers and ecologists on the other.

But perhaps most importantly, many plantations are only economically viable because of significant incentives or subsidies from governments. These reduce the start-up costs to private firms and allow them to destroy natural forests. Ending subsidies would ensure businesses only move into areas where they could cover their costs.

Although research into the level of subsidies is still underway, the World Bank estimates fast wood plantations are subsidised at around 14 billion dollars a year globally.

CIFOR and the three environmental groups are calling for a halt to the clearing of natural forests for plantations, a phasing out of subsidies to industrial plantations and asking that existing plantations be run in a socially, environmentally and economically sound manner.

The need for well-planned, well-managed fast wood plantations has never been greater.

In Indonesia, for example, the pulp industry has grown so rapidly that managed fast wood plantations still only supply a third of industry’s needs although in most cases it would have been time wise possible for the concerned industries to establish a sustainable plantation resource. The rest continues to come from natural forests. The situation is made worse by the fact that pulp mills develop their capacity more quickly than plantations expand.

“These plantations are going to be part of the future of forestry, so it’s not a question of getting rid of these plantations, it’s a question of doing it right,” Cossalter said.